Step 1 to mastering business IT disruptions: Back up your data — NOW!

If you haven’t already done it, don’t delay. Back up your organization’s critical information and files to a secure remote location from which they can be recovered online 24/7. Here’s what’s involved:

Know about your data (as well as those applications that may be difficult to reconstruct should you lose them) — what you have, where it is, who “owns” it, how important it is. And don’t forget email.

Choose backup/replication options that are highly reliable, highly available, highly secure, easy to scale, and straightforward to monitor. Whether or not you decide to back up your data locally, it’s imperative that you replicate critical data to a secure remote location.
The right service provider can integrate real-time data replication, secure data storage, and quick-restore capabilities in a resilient cloud environment that costs 50%-to-60% less than most older alternatives. And the right service provider will be happy to invite you to look over their Service Delivery Centers.

Get yourself a “Backup Czar” who’ll make sure your backups actually happen and that what’s been backed up can be recovered. This means testing the backup/recovery process so you know it works smoothly — something the right service provider will happily help you do.

Next: Step 2 in mastering IT disruptions — How to make a staying-in-business plan